49ers sign Damontre Moore, place Ronald Blair on season-ending IR

49ers sign Damontre Moore, place Ronald Blair on season-ending IR

SANTA CLARA -- Defensive end Damontre Moore made a strong bid for a roster spot with the 49ers with an impressive training camp and exhibition season.

Moore finally made it to the team’s 53-man roster on Wednesday, filling the roster spot that was vacated when the 49ers placed defensive end Ronald Blair on injured reserve. Blair is scheduled for season-ending surgery to repair a torn ACL in his right knee.

Moore, 27, has appeared in 54 games over the past seven seasons with the New York Giants, Miami, Seattle, Dallas and the Raiders. He has 10 sacks in his NFL career.

Moore signed a one-year contract with the 49ers on Wednesday after originally coming to the organization in the spring.

He played with the San Diego Fleet of the Alliance of American Football in the spring, and signed with the 49ers. He registered two sacks during the preseason but was among the team’s final cuts when the 49ers were required to trim their roster from 90 players to the regular-season limit of 53.

Blair served as the 49ers’ No. 3 edge rusher behind Nick Bosa and Dee Ford. Moore is likely to see action in a backup role, beginning Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals at Levi’s Stadium.

49ers' George Kittle supports Iowa players speaking out against coach

49ers' George Kittle supports Iowa players speaking out against coach

But his former school is in the news for all the wrong reasons, as the team's strength and conditioning coach, Chris Doyle, was placed on administrative leave Saturday after several former black Iowa players shared stories in which they were mistreated by Doyle.

Kittle, who played at Iowa from 2013 to 2016, weighed in on the decision by Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, and offered his support to his former teammates.

"My heart aches for my Iowa teammates, my brothers, and my friends," Kittle wrote on Twitter. "I want them to know that I stand with them, support them, and applaud them for having the courage to speak up and start this difficult conversation."

Two of Kittle's former teammates, James Daniels and Emmanuel Rugamba, shared their encounters with Doyle on Twitter on Friday.

There are too many racial disparities in the Iowa football program. Black players have been treated unfairly for far too long.

But if former Cleveland Browns coach Hue Jackson had his way, the quarterback would have played during the 2017 season.

During an interview with ESPN Cleveland on Friday, Jackson was asked about Kaepernick, and revealed that he pushed for the Browns to sign the former 49ers quarterback.

“I wanted him,” Jackson said (H/T The News-Herald). “It just didn’t work out. Obviously, those things do have to work from a finance, draft, whatever all that is. And that wasn’t my decision."

Throughout the 2016 season, Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to bring attention to racial injustices plaguing the country.

Following the 2016 NFL season, the 49ers hired Kyle Shanahan as their coach and John Lynch as the general manager. They informed Kaepernick that they planned to release him, so he opted out of his contract.

Despite his obvious talents, no team has signed Kaepernick since he became a free agent in 2017. He held a workout at an Atlanta area high school last year, but there were no suitors for his services following the showcase.

Jackson, who coached the Raiders in 2011, also mentioned that Oakland planned to draft Kaepernick in 2011 if the 49ers hadn't taken him in the second round.

“I’ve known Colin," Jackson said. "When I was with the Raiders (2011), we were going to draft him when I was there. So, obviously he’d been a really good player in the league. He had tremendous success."

"He is a guy who has stood for something," Jackson said. "I think everybody is seeing exactly where he was coming from … I always thought Colin deserved an opportunity in this league, but he has to want to play. If he really wanted to play, I think he would have a chance again.”

Whether or not the Browns were close to signing Kaepernick, he would have been an upgrade over what they had in-house at the time. The 2017 Cleveland team went 0-16 with DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan and Cody Kessler seeing time at quarterback. Kizer started 15 games and threw for 2,891 yards and 11 touchdowns, while being intercepted 22 times.

Despite going 1-10 as the 49ers starter in 2016, Kaepernick completed 59.2 percent of his passes for 2,241 yards and 16 touchdowns. He was intercepted just four times.

Would Kaepernick have made the 2017 Browns a playoff team? Probably not, but they most likely would have been better than 0-16.